American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon

Jesus the Black Messiah; Jesus the Jew; Jesus the Hindu sage; Jesus the hippie: These Jesuses join the traditional figure of Jesus Christ in American Jesus, which was acclaimed upon publication in hardcover as the liveliest book about Jesus to appear in years. Our nation's changing images of Jesus, Stephen Prothero contends, are a looking glass into the national character. While most Christians cleave to a traditional faith, others cast Jesus as folk hero, pitchman, and countercultural icon. And so it has been since the nation's founding--from Thomas Jefferson, who took scissors to his New Testament; to the Jews, Buddhists, and Muslims who fit Jesus into their own traditions; to the people who adapt Jesus for the Holy Land Theme Park. American Jesus is "a lively, illuminating and accessible survey that takes us into unexpected corners of our shared religious heritage" (Dan Cryer, Newsday).